To Everything There Is A Season: Rikugien Garden, Tokyo

A friend of mine extended an invite to the Rikugien Garden in Tokyo to see the changing of the leaves.  The timing was perfect!  Gina came with Ian and me.  Ian was not seeing it as a priveledge as he woke up whining, started to cry that he wanted to go to school with Dougie and pretty much acted like a three-year-old all day.  Yes, I know - he IS three.  It was so obvious this day...

We saw a kingfisher - the most colorful bird I have yet to see in Japan.  It's turquoise back and tail feathers were a stark contrast to the autumn foliage.

He even caught and ate a fish while we were spying on him

Then flew off and perched over the pond for seconds...

The colors were magnificent

What Gina and I thought were Winter Illumination decorations, turned out to be tree supports!  The supports for the trees were nearly as intricate as the garden themselves.

The boat and boat shed were very serene

 Ian, on the other hand, was not...

We ate dango and drank matcha at the tea house for lunch.

Ian rather enjoyed licking the sticky sweet sauce on the grilled mochi (much like teriyaki).

He then pouted when the sauce covered that luscious lower lip

His impatience for getting it wiped off was showing in his chin...

Rikugien Garden is an exceptional garden.  One that holds treasures in every season.  Autumn in Japan is beautiful.  Life oftentimes passes by without so much as a thought as to what is going on around us.  We become blind to our surroundings, even blind to our circumstances.  This was a day of awakening. Awakening of my senses, my body, my breath...  It was a day to behold the changing of seasons, to rejoice in God's creations  - the circle of life.  Each of these leaves are turning colors and will soon be pushed off their spring and summer's perch on the branch.  The next spring's leaves are forming, swelling with new life and casting off the old.  A cycle of rebirth.

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2